Category: Literary Devices

Characterization

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Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Characterization

Etymologically, characterization has been derived from a Medieval Latin term, characterizare, which means to put a sign of some specific feature on something. In Greek, it exists as kharakterizein which has the same meanings. However, in English, it seems to have emerged in 1744 with the meaning of giving special feature to something or some person.

Grammatically, it is a noun with plural characterizations. In fiction, it is considered the construction of different characters having human qualities.

Definition of Literary Device of Characterization

As a literary term, characterization means the presentation of the characters or persona appearing in narratives, plays, or even poetry. It also means the presentation of everything that could be considered a character. Interestingly, it is considered an integral element of fiction and movies rather than plays.

Process of Characterization

Writers and authors need to focus on the following points when teaching, learning, or drawing characters in narratives or poetry.

  1. Physical features
  2. Good qualities
  3. Bad qualities
  4. Future prospects
  5. Thinking capacity
  6. Major roles in the storyline

Literary Examples of Characterization

Example # 1

From All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

“Close behind us were our friends: Tjaden, a skinny locksmith of our own age, the biggest eater of the company. He sits down to eat as thin as a grasshopper and gets up as big as a bug in the family way; Haie Westhus, of the same age, a peat-digger, who can easily hold a  ration-loaf in his hand and say: Guess what I’ve got in my fist; then Detering, a peasant, who thinks of nothing but his farm-yard and his wife; and finally Stanislaus Katczinsky, the leader of our group, shrewd, cunning, and hard-bitten, forty years of age, with a face of the soil, blue eyes, bent shoulders, and a remarkable nose for dirty weather, good food, and soft jobs.”

This passage has been borrowed from All Quiet on the Western Front, a phenomenal novel by Remarque. It shows how Paul Baumer presents his friends Tjaden, Haie Westhus, Detering, and Katczinsky. He associates every one of them with one specific feature and moves to the next to state that war tied all together. Each character shows one specific feature with their age to demonstrate how they are strong and united.

Example # 2

From Black Boy by Richard Wright

I was a drunkard in my sixth year, before I had begun school. With a gang of children, I roamed the streets, begging pennies from passers-by, haunting the doors of saloons, wandering farther and farther away from home each day. I saw more than I could understand and heard more than I could remember. The point of life became for me the times when I could beg drinks. My mother was in despair. She beat me; then she prayed and wept over me, imploring me to be good, telling me that she had to work, all of which carried no weight to my wayward mind.

Although this passage is a simple narrative of Richard Wright’s Black Boy when he was just six years, he is aware of how children never went to school in the area where he was a student. This description presents the characters of his friends as well as his mother. This characterization shows Wright’s powerful observation as well as his strong memory.

Example # 3

From Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

They had walked in single file down the path, and even in the open one stayed behind the other. Both were dressed in denim trousers and in denim coats with brass buttons. Both wore black, shapeless hats and both carried tight blanket rolls slung over their shoulders. The first man was small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features. Every part of him was defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose. Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, and wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely.

This passage from Of Mice and Men presents the character of George and Loonie, showing their physical features and costumes. Steinbeck presents them as if they are twins yet they have a strong difference as he lists them as the first man and the second man. These physical features show the power of characterization of Steinbeck.

Example # 4

From The Color Purple by Alice Walker

My mama dead. She die screaming and cussing. She scream at me. She cuss at me. I’ big. I can’t move fast enough. By time I git back from the well, the water be warm. By time I git the tray ready the food be cold. By time I git all the children ready for school it be dinner time. He don’t say nothing. He set there by the bed holding her hand an cryin, talking bout don’t leave me, don’t go.

These words of Celie show how Alice Walker has used her characterization skills in this novel. It also shows that Alice Walker has used Celie as the first-person narrator. She tells about her mother, her physical feature of being a big lady, her weakness of screaming, her own situation, and how she used to do work.

Example # 5

From To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Aunt Alexandra fitted into the world of Maycomb like a hand into a glove, but never into the world of Jem and me. I so often wondered how she could be Atticus’s and Uncle Jack’s sister that I revived half-remembered tales of changelings and mandrake roots that Jem had spun long ago. These were abstract speculations for the first month of her stay, as she had little to say to Jem or me, and we saw her only at mealtimes and at night before we went to bed. It was summer and we were outdoors. Of course, some afternoons when I would run inside for a drink of water, I would find the living room overrun with Maycomb ladies, sipping, whispering, fanning, and I would be called: “Jean Louise, come speak to these ladies.”

This characterization of Aunt Alexandra and her status in Maycomb shows how Harper Lee has used her skill of creating living characters. However, this characterization has less description and more narration about her relations, her power of weaving stories, and how Jean Lousie sees all this.

How to Create Characterization

  1. Planning a character beforehand.
  2. Think about character traits.
  3. Outline the motives, features, and implications of character traits.
  4. Plan antagonists and protagonists.
  5. Think about setting and conflict based on features.
  6. Write descriptions to create peculiarities.

Benefits of Using Characterization

  1. Characters become personas for teaching moral lessons.
  2. Characterization makes characters lifelike and real.
  3. Characterization helps describe figures with clarity.
  4. Characterization helps the readers and the audiences to sync or equate their own character traits with the person and understand human nature.
  5. It helps the readers and the audiences build a narrative.

Literary Device of Characterization in Literary Theory

  1. Characterization in Narratology: The literary device of characterization is the bedrock of a literary piece. Although characters differ in perception, observation, and description, they are almost the same in every other narrative. In narratology, they are very important as a character could be a focuser or a narrator, or even an actor. This depends on the author as well as the readers and how they interpret the authors’ words about the characters.
  2. Characterization in Formalism Literary Theory: In formalism, however, they are an integral part, for figurative language mostly works when great characters are used. The reason is that to make readers perceive characters as living beings, the author has to use figurative language using metaphors, similes, and other literary terms.
  3. Characterization in Postcolonialism Literary Theory: In postcolonialism, good characterization is necessary to show power relations, subjectivity, identity, and hybridity of the characters. In fact, it requires highly diverse skills to show indigenous, tribal, racial, and even familial characters from different locations and different nationalities which have undergone colonialism.
  4. Characterization in Psychoanalytic Literary Theory: To explain id, ego, and superego in a better way, the authors need to present characters having all of these and other attendant features to show the psychoanalytic side of the culture.
  5. Characterization in Postmodernism, Indigenous Critical Theory, and Critical Race Theory: Even in postmodernism and other critical theoretical perspectives, the authors present characters in their respective cultural settings to show how they evince the relevant features such as survivance, discourses of pathology, fractured figures, mentally deranged persons, identities, indigenous practices, and indigenous epistemological issues. Almost the same is the case of characterization in other theoretical perspectives such as the queer theory or readers’ response theory.

Suggested Readings

Baldick, Chris. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford University Press, 1996. Print.

Margolin, Uri. “Characterization In Narrative: Some Theoretical Prolegomena.” Neophilologus 67.1 (1983): 1-14. Wellek, Rene, and Austin Warren. Theory of Literature. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1956. Print.

More from Literary Devices:

Blank Verse

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Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Blank Verse

Adapted from unrhymed Greek and Latin heroic verse, the literary device of blank verse entered the English language through Italy in the 16th century along with other classical meters. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, introduced the meter, along with the sonnet and other Italian humanist verse forms, to England in the early 16th century.

Definition of Literary Device of Blank Verse

In literary terms, it means to use blank verse with iambic pentameter in poetry. A blank verse line has a total of 10 syllables in unstressed/stressed order.

Types of Blank Verse Poetry

There are total four types of blank verses with the following patterns of syllables as here stressed is (S) and unstressed syllable is (U).

  1. Iambic pentameter (U/S)
           Example:               U       S  U   S      U      S      U    S   U    S

                           When I do count the clock that tells the time

  1. Trochaic tetrameter (S/U)

Example: It is the reverse of the Iambic meter.

            S      U   S    U    S       U     S    U

Tell me not in  mournful   numbers

  1. Anapestic trimeter (U/U/S)

Example: It is total 9 syllables; first two unstressed and one stressed syllable.

  1. Dactylic hexameter (S/U/U)

Example: It has total 17 syllables; 6 stressed and 15 unstressed.

Literary Examples of Blank Verse

Example # 1

From “Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth

Five years have past; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters! And again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur. – Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs.

These lines from the poem of William Wordsworth “Lines Written a Few Miles”show the use of iambic pentamer where five pairs of meters have been used with a U/S syllable pattern. It is a beautiful use of iambic pentamer. Just read the lines and see how they have used stressed syllables and unstressed syllables.

Example # 2

From “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison” by S. T. Coleridge

Well, they are gone, and here must I remain,
This lime-tree bower my prison! I have lost
Beauties and feelings, such as would have been
Most sweet to my remembrance even when age
had dimmed mine eyes to blindness! They, meanwhile.

These lines occur in the poem of Coleridge, “This-Lime Tree Bower My Prison.” It shows a beautiful use of iambic pentameter with a stressed and an unstressed syllable although it has no fixed rhyme scheme.

Example # 3

From “Spring Offensive” by Wilfred Owen

Halted against the shade of a last hill,

They fed, and, lying easy, were at ease

And, finding comfortable chests and knees

Carelessly slept.

                               But many there stood still

To face the stark, blank sky beyond the ridge,

Knowing their feet had come to the end of the world.

This black verse poem by Wilfred Owen shows the mixed use of iambic trochaic although the first three lines are in iambic pentameter. It is a beautiful blank verse example.

Example # 4

From “The Unknown Bird” by Edward Thomas

Three lovely notes he whistled, too soft to be heard

If others sang; but others never sang

In the great beech-wood all that May and June.

No one saw him: I alone could hear him

Though many listened. Was it but four years

Ago? or five? He never came again.

This poem also shows the beauty of blank verse although it uses an apestic trimeter. Yet, its main beauty lies in the use of blank verse.

Example # 5

From “Counter-Attack” By Siegfried Sassoon

We’d gained our first objective hours before

While dawn broke like a face with blinking eyes,

Pallid, unshaven and thirsty, blind with smoke.

Things seemed all right at first. We held their line,

With bombers posted, Lewis guns well placed,

And clink of shovels deepening the shallow trench.

These lines show the skill of Sassoon in using blank verse. The beauty of blank verse lies in the grandeur that the poetry shows through iambic pentameter with unstressed and stressed syllables.

How to Create Blank Verse

Creating blank verse poetry is not difficult. All you have to choose to practice all types of metrical patterns and then express your feelings in tightly knit iambic or anapestic meters. These two types of meters are easy to use.

Benefits of Using Blank Verse

It has the following benefits.

  1. It makes your poetic output grand in its quality.
  2. It creates musical quality and good notes.
  3. It is easy to read, easy to memorize, and easy to sing.
  4. Easy to use for identifying metrical pattern

Literary Device of Blank Verse in Literary Theory

  1. Blank verse is a poetic device and it is mostly used in the structural critique of a poem or poetry, yet its role in theories has not declined. It is mostly used in formalism rather than any other literary theory. In other theoretical perspectives, its role is minimal in interpreting cultural or social perspectives mostly on an indigenous and regional level and to some extent on the national level.

Suggested Readings

Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.

Shaw, Robert Burns. Blank Verse: A Guide to Its History and Use. Ohio University Press, 2007. Print. Weinfield, Henry. The Blank-Verse Tradition from Milton to Stevens: Freethinking and the Crisis of Modernity. Cambridge University Press, 2012. Print.

Suggested read: Literary Device Ballad

Ballad

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Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Ballad

Etymologically, the term ballad has entered the English language from old French where it was ballada, a poem accompanied dancing. The term was derived from a Latin term, ballare which means to dance. A medieval Scottish term ballares also means to dance which is the source of ballet, another related term. In short, the term ballad finds its source in almost all ancient languages.

Definition of Literary Device of Ballad

As a literary term, a ballad is a type of song written in verse to be sung with musical instruments or without them. It is a narrative about some national, tribal, or regional topic or even a folk song. In Ireland and Britain, ballads were a popular form of poetry or song sung on different occasions.

Types of Literary Device of Ballads

There are five major types of literary device, ballads.

  1. Traditional ballads
  2. Broadside ballads
  3. Literary ballads
  4. Folk ballads
  5. Mythical ballads

Literary Examples of Literary Device of Ballad

Example # 1

From “As You Came from the Holy Land” by Sir Walter Ralegh

As you came from the holy land

Of Walsingham,

Met you not with my true love

By the way as you came?

“How shall I know your true love,

That have met many one,

I went to the holy land,

That have come, that have gone?”

These are the first two stanzas of the popular ballad of Sir Walter Ralegy “As You Came from the Holy Land.” It shows that this ballad is not only melodious but also very enchanting. It has a religious touch and could be with any musical instrument. Therefore, this is a good example of a ballad.

Example # 2

From “La Belle Dame sans Merci” by John Keats

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

       Alone and palely loitering?

The sedge has withered from the lake,

       And no birds sing.

This is the stanza of the poem “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by John Keats. Its rhyme scheme, meter, and notes show that it is a perfect type of ballad that could be sung on different occasions through different instruments.

Example # 3

“The Ballad of a Bachelor” by Ellis Parker Butler

Listen, ladies, while I sing
The ballad of John Henry King.

John Henry was a bachelor,
His age was thirty-three or four.

Two maids for his affection vied,
And each desired to be his bride,

And bravely did they strive to bring

Unto their feet John Henry King.

These lines occur in the ballad of Ellis Parker Butler. It also shows perfect rhyme scheme, rhythm as well as meter. Therefore, it is a good example of a national ballad having musical qualities.

Example # 4

From “Summoned by the King” by William Kite

“We are told to believe in the afterlife
Yet no one from death has returned
How can there be any life at all
Once the body has been burned”

“I watched my Father’s funeral fire
The flames lit up the sky
I know I shall not look upon him again
So is the after life a lie?”

These two stanzas occur in the ballad “Summoned by the King.” It has a good rhyme scheme of ABCB in both stanzas, and both are in a perfect rhythm. Therefore, this shows the skill of William Kite in writing a ballad.

Example # 5

From “Ballad of the Green Berets” by Barry Sadler and Robin Moore

Fighting soldiers from the sky
Fearless men who jump and die
Men who mean just what they say
The brave men of the Green Beret

Silver wings upon their chest
These are men, America’s best
One hundred men we’ll test today
But only three win the Green Beret.

This is the song of Green Beret, the US commando team. Barry Sadler and Robin Moore have given it a perfect rhythm as well as a rhyme to align it with the motto of the Green Beret. The repetition of “the Green Beret” in both stanzas has emphasized its thematic strand of nationalism.

How to Create Ballad

  1. Think about a story, having characters, dialogues, situations, themes, and background if you want a narrative.
  2. Create the dialogues each in a quatrain or heroic couplets.
  3. Create ABAB or some other good rhyme scheme.
  4. Use pentameter or hexameter.
  5. Read it aloud to align it with your and your readers’ feelings.

Benefits of Using Ballad

  1. It creates a thematic idea in the minds of the readers.
  2. It becomes easy to reach a wider audience having the same national or folk sentiments.
  3. It makes the writers convey their messages effectively and beautifully.
  4. It makes the readers absorb messages easily.

Literary Device of Ballad in Literary Theory

  1. As far as literary theories are concerned, ballads have been mostly written during the time of Romanticism. Therefore, any theoretical concept could be applied to interpret a ballad.
  2. Yet, formalism, readers’ response theory, deconstructionism, and structuralism are the most effective literary theories applied to ballads to properly understand their meanings.
  3. It, however, does not mean that other theoretical ideas could not be applied to the ballads. A critic could apply any theoretical idea but he should better first understand the purpose of a ballad, for it could belong to a race or an indigenous community, or a queer section of the section. In these cases, it would be better to critique them through indigenous critical theory, critical race theory, or queer theory respectively.

Suggested Readings

Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.

Bryant, Shasta M. The Spanish Ballad in English. University Press of Kentucky, 2014. Print. Child, Francis James. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Vol. 5. Courier Corporation, 2013. Print.

Suggested read: Literary Device: Analogy

Antagonist

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Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Antagonist

Etymologically, the term antagonist is a derivative of a French term called antagoniste which entered the English language in or around 1590. It means the person who contends with another person. Its trace goes to the Latin term antagonista and the Greek term antagonists which means an opponent, a rival, or a competitor, or a person who opposes the main character of a text.

Its verb in the Greek language is antagonizesthai which means to wage a struggle, or make efforts to win in a context. It mostly occurred and still occurs in battles or sports. However, it entered the sphere of human acts in the beginning of the 17th century and since then has been used in narratives for a character who opposes the protagonists, or the hero of the story.

Grammatically, it is a noun. Its verb is antagonize that means to make somebody become angry, touchy, furious, or irritating.

Definition of Literary Device of Antagonist

As a literary term, the antagonist is the principal rival, arch enemy, or foil of the main character, called the protagonist who is the source of goodness and virtue, while the antagonist is often the source of evil or bad actions happening in the storyline.

However, a protagonist could be an antagonist himself, or even the situation, or nature could be the antagonist of the protagonist in the case of which it is not bad things that nature is suggestive; rather it just obstructs the good intentions of the protagonist.

Common Examples of Literary Device of Antagonists

  1. Satan is a common antagonist of the entire mankind.
  2. Some animals such as a snake are painted in a bad light, making them antagonists.
  3. Some nouns are permanent antagonists such as criminals, thieves, burglars, etc.
  4. Conventional movies from Latin America, India, and even old English movies in the line of 007 have villains instead of antagonists.

Literary Examples of Antagonists

Example # 1

From All Quiet on the Western Front by Eric Maria Remarque

He is right. We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war.

This passage from the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, shows Paul Baumer, the protagonist of the novel, ruminating over the comments of his colleague who think that he is right. They are no longer young. They have become adults and that they are now independent but the point is that they are independent only in war and war zone. They have no social experience. Therefore, this war or war-like social structure is the main antagonist working against the protagonist, Paul Baumer.

Example # 2

From Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

“I’ll try to catch him,” said Curley. His eyes passed over the new men and he stopped. He glanced coldly at George and then at Lennie. His arms gradually bent at the elbows and his hands closed into fists. He stiffened and went into a slight crouch. His glance was at once calculating and pugnacious. Lennie squirmed under the look and shifted his feet nervously. Curley stepped gingerly close to him. “You the new guys the old man was waitin’ for?”

This passage shows Curley, the antagonist of the novel, Of Mice and Men, by Steinbeck. He clearly looks at Lennie and George to see if he could take on both of them. His stiffening posture and crouching position point to his evil intentions. Therefore, it is clear that he is the antagonist of the novel.

Example # 3

From To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

There was indeed a caste system in Maycomb, but to my mind it worked this way: the older citizens, the present generation of people who had lived side by side for years and years, were utterly predictable to one another: they took for granted attitudes, character shadings, even gestures, as having been repeated in each generation and refined by time. Thus the dicta No
Crawford Minds His Own Business, Every Third Merriweather Is Morbid, The Truth Is Not in the Delafields, All the Bufords Walk Like That, were simply guides to daily living: never take a check from a Delafield without a discreet call to the bank; Miss Maudie Atkinson’s shoulder stoops because she was a Buford; if Mrs. Grace Merriweather sips gin out of Lydia E. Pinkham bottles it’s nothing unusual—her mother did the same.

This passage from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee presents Maycomb as a society facing fissures and crevices on account of the prevalent caste system in it. Therefore, almost all the families witness cracks despite having generations of people with good characters and grand portfolios. Therefore, despite good characters such as Mrs. Grace and Miss Maudie, society obstructs the protagonist, Scout. Therefore, society itself is the main antagonist of the novel.

Example # 4

From The Color Purple by Alice Walker

I know you think I am dead. But I am not. I been writing to you too, over they ears, but Albert said you’d never hear from me again and since I never heard from you all this time, I guess he was right. Now I only write at Christmas and Easter hoping my letter get lost among the Christmas and Easter greetings, or that Albert get the holiday spirit and have pity on us.

This passage occurs in Alice Walker’s popular novel, The Color Purple. As Nettie informs her sister that she has tried her best to reach out to her, she mentions who was causing the obstruction. This shows that his intention was to stop the sisters from meeting each other and causing a stop to his blackmail and bullying. Therefore, he is the main antagonist of the story.

Example # 5

Antagonist in The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

The story of the novel The Killer Angels shows Lee and Longstreet as antagonists in the entire battle, yet they are not outright antagonists. They are somewhat good as Lee is a good commander of his group. His admission of the failure of his responsibility during a charge shows this feature, yet he joins Longstreet characters in showing that they have been fighting for a failed cause. Therefore, they are antagonists of the story.

How to Create an Antagonist

  1. Make a plan for a protagonist and antagonist when weaving your story.
  2. Decide whether the protagonist is a society, abstract idea, or person.
  3. Create features of the antagonist opposite to the protagonist.
  4. Evaluate the role of the antagonist vis-à-vis the protagonist and sees its features distinctly opposite to that of the protagonist.

Benefits of Using Antagonist

  1. It makes readers aware of the bad side of life as well as the characters.
  2. It informs readers about virtue and evil.
  3. It makes the author present a balanced approach toward life.
  4. It helps the readers and the audiences to apply the same situation to life and be able to make an informed decision in their lives.

Literary Device of Antagonist in Literary Theory

  1. Antagonist in Postcolonialism: As a cultural critique, postcolonialism represents literature that sets it apart from other literary pieces in terms of power and indigenous awakening. That is why almost all the postcolonial literary pieces have one thing in common; they present colonialists or collaborators as antagonists of the protagonists. Therefore, an antagonist is an important part of the postcolonial literary pieces or critique.
  2. Antagonist and Archetypal Theory: Even in the archetypal literary theory, an antagonist plays their part in creating the archetypes and impacts the storyline as well as the readers and the audiences.
  3. Antagonist in Indigenous Critical Theory: Indigenous critical theory also takes an antagonist as a necessary element of the indigenous narratives though poetry and paintings could be exceptions. The reason is that indigenous theoretical assumptions stipulate the presence of paracolonialism which makes it mandatory to have an antagonist vis-à-vis a protagonist.
  4. Antagonist in Postmodernism: The term antagonist gets diluted in postmodernism on account of the cultural streak of turning every cultural or literary tradition or convention topsy turvy. Therefore, an antagonist could be a protagonist or vice versa, or even a single person simultaneously.
  5. Antagonist in Other Theoretical Perspectives: In fact, an antagonist has become such an integral part of social lifestyle and narratives that it is hard to eschew him/her in theoretical perspectives. However, in some theoretical perspectives, it could be explored on different levels such as in structuralism, poststructuralism, formalism, or new criticism.

Suggested Readings

Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014.

Bilof, Edwin G. “The Killer Angels: A Case Study of Historical Fiction in the Social Studies Curriculum.” The Social Studies 87.1 (1996): 19-23.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Random House, 2010.

Shaara, Michael. The killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War. Vol. 2. Ballantine Books, 2010. Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. Vol. 1. Open Road Media, 2011.

You may also read (Allegory — Oxymoron)

Anaphora

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Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Anaphora

Etymologically, literary device anaphora comprises two Greek terms; ana which means back, and pherein which means to bear. It later evolved into anaphora which means repetition. It entered the Latin language and thus came into use in the English language in the late 16th century.

Grammatically, it is a noun and its plural is anaphoras. It is the use of pronouns to avoid repetition, while in rhetoric it is the use of some words or a phrase in the beginning of every new clause or successive clauses.

In a literal sense, anaphora means using a word referring back to the same word used earlier in the sentence.

Definition of Literary Device of Anaphora

In literature, rhetoric, and composition, this term comprises a number of words or a phrase that occurs in the beginning of every new clause, or new sentence, or verse. It is used to stress upon the same idea through this repetition. It often occurs in conjunction with epistrophe which is contradictory to anaphor. It means the use of some words or phrases to occur at the end of a clause of a sentence and in successive clauses, sentences, or verses.

Examples of Literary Device of Anaphora in Literature and Lyrics

Example # 1

From “She Used to Be Mine” by Sara Bareilles

She is messy but she’s kind
She is lonely most of the time
She is all of this mixed up and baked in a beautiful pie
She is gone but she used to be mine.

These are the last verses of Sara Bareilles’s lyric “She Used to be Mine” in which she has constantly used “She is…” in every verse. Although this repetition stresses upon the girl that she is referring to, it also highlights her manners and physical traits, creating a complete pen-picture of her friend.

Example # 2

From Animal Farm by George Orwell

We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty.

This passage occurs in Animal Farm, a novel by George Orwell. The Old Major constantly refers to “We are…” to stress upon the collectivity of the animals to make them rise up for rebellion against man’s oppression and injustice meted out to the animals. Therefore, this anaphoric use of “We are…” rhetorically helps him persuade the animals to listen to him.

Example # 3

From Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

I like this day; I like that sky of steel; I like the sternnessand stillness of the world under this frost. I like Thornfield, its antiquity, its retirement, its old crowtrees and thorn-trees, its grey facade, and lines of dark windows reflecting that metal welkin: and yet how long have I abhorredthe very thought of it, shunned it like a great plague-house? How I do still abhor—

This passage occurs in Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte has used “I like…” as an anaphora in this passage to cleverly present the first-person emphasis on the character of Jane. There is also the use of “its” which shows the repetition in an anaphoric way. Both of these examples led credence to the effectiveness of anaphora in writing.

Example # 4

From Hard Times by Charles Dickens

The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s mouth, which was wide, thin, and hard set. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s voice, which was inflexible, dry, and dictatorial. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs, like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside.

This passage occurs in Hard Times written by Charles Dickens. Dickens here uses “The emphasis was…” to refer to the stress of the speaker through his different things such as voice, face, and hair. In a sense, he is referring to paralinguistic features that help a rhetor use his/her body language to persuade his/her listeners or readers.

Example # 5

From “Possibilities” by Wislawa Szymborska

I prefer movies.

I prefer cats.

I prefer the oaks along the Warta.

I prefer Dickens to Dostoyevsky.

I prefer myself liking people

to myself loving mankind.

I prefer keeping a needle and thread on hand, just in case.

I prefer the color green.

The use of “I prefer…” in these verses shows how much stress is upon the personal preference of the poet. This example from “Possibilities” by Szymborska shows the beautiful use of an anaphora.

From Night by Elie Wiesel

I no longer pleaded for anything. I was no longer able to lament. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man. Without love or mercy. I was nothing but ashes now, but I felt myself to be stronger than this Almighty to whom my life had been bound for so long. In the midst of these men assembled for prayer, I felt like an observer, a stranger.

Although there are several examples of anaphoras in Night by Elie Wiesel, this one is interesting in that it shows how “I no longer..” and “I was” occur at different intervals to stress upon the point of religion and its role in the Holocaust. Wiesel has beautifully used his theological discourse to stress upon his Jewish identity.

Example # 6

From The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisenor

It might have been the day that gray photograph was taken. It might have been the day she was holding cousin Totchy and baby Frank. It might have been the moment she pointed to the camera for the kids to look and they wouldn’t. Maybe the sky didn’t look the day she fell down. Maybe God was busy. It could be true she didn’t dive right one day and hurt her spine. Or maybe the story that she fell very hard from a high step stool, like Totchy said, is true.

This passage occurs in the novel by Sandra Cisenor, The House on Mango Street. She constantly starts her sentence with “It might have been…” and “Maybe…” She wants to stress upon the fallibility of her memory and her guess about her friends and their activities. This also stresses upon the major point that she is referring to with reference to Mango Street.

How to Create Anaphora

  1. Plan what you want to stress upon such as “As I said…”
  2. Create your plan to use it in the first part of every clause of a sentence.
  3. Use it in conversation when talking about the same issue you have planned such as “As I said you have knowledge of it and you know it better. As I said earlier that you will win and as I said you won it.”
  4. Create three to four anaphoras in your conversation every day.

Benefits of Using Literary Device of Anaphora

  1. It helps repeat the same point to stress upon some specific discourse.
  2. Constantly repetition at a specific point helps make a deep impact on the audience.
  3. It helps audiences remember points easily and absorb the major lesson of a literary piece.
  4. It helps the writers to persuade the audience easily.

Anaphora in Literary Theory

  1. Although the use of the literary device of anaphora in literary theory is a bit ambiguous, as a rhetorical term, it helps the writers clarify their messages and stress upon the main point. However, its interpretations from the readers’ point of view rely mainly on the context. Therefore, it mostly depends on its antecedent or what comes after it. Hence, it is a dietic use of anaphora that works better. It means it is based on the context in which it is used.
  2. The literary device of anaphora is mostly associated with power and discourse. That is why it often appears significant in indigenous studies, post-colonial theory, post-structuralism, and most importantly in formalism. It is even considered an important part of the syntactical features of discourse.
  3. Anaphora is part and parcel of rhetoric. It emphasizes a point and lends credence of the argument of the writer by presenting him/her with handy logos.

Suggestion Readings

Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary Of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014.

Baldick, Chris. The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of Literary Terms. Oxford University Press, 1996. Reinhart, Tanya Miriam. The Syntactic Domain of Anaphora. Diss. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1976.

Keep on learning: Literary Device: Characterization

Analogy

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Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Analogy

Etymologically, the term analogy is a derivative of a Latin term, analogia, which also exists in the Greek language with the same spellings. It is made up of two-word ana- which means according to and logos which means ratio. In other words, it means proportion or correspondence. It is mostly used in mathematics in logical questions as Plato has used in the meanings of likeness or proportion between different things.

Semantically, it is used for comparison between two things on the basis of resemblance or similarities. It is a noun with plural analogies.

Definition of Literary Device of Analogy

As a literary term, analogy helps build a relationship based on the similarity between two ideas, concepts, characters, thematic strands, motifs, or even plots. This analogous relationship further helps build or create ideas.

Common Examples of Analogy

  1. The hammer is to nail as the comb is to hair.
  2. White is to black as up is to down.
  3. The mansion is to the shack as a yacht to a dinghy
  4. Bees is to hive as bears are to den.

Literary Examples of Analogy

Example # 1

From Macbeth by William Shakespeare

There if I grow,
The harvest is your own.

My plenteous joys,

Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves

In drop of sorrow.

These lines occur in Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Banquo speaks the first two lines, while the next three lines were spoken by King Duncan. Here Banquo is comparing himself to wheat, while the second the king is equating his joys with drops of water. This type of equation of things with different things is a literary analogy.

Example # 2

From First Inaugural Address by Franklin D. Roosevelt

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

Roosevelt speaks these lines in his First Inaugural Address. Interestingly, this literary analogy compares fear with fear that does not exist and is nameless. However, he thinks that it could be converted into a different type of other feelings if an effort is made.

Example # 3

From Hamlet by William Shakespeare

So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a Satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember?

This beautiful analogy that Hamlet uses to compare Hyperion to Satyr. He thinks that King Claudius is to Hamlet as Hyperion is to Satyr. This analogy shows how Shakespeare has belittled Claudius when compared to Hamlet just to raise his status in terms of legitimacy.

Example # 4

From A Birthday by Christina Rossetti

My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water’d shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell.

These lines occur in the poem of Christina Rossetti, “A Birthday.” Although she has extensively used similes to show what her heart is this is also a good use of different analogies to show the people how she equates her heart with a singing bird or a rainbow shell.

Example # 5

From Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

George lay back on the sand and crossed his hands under his head, and Lennie imitated him, raising his head to see whether he was doing it right. “God, you’re a lot of trouble,” said George. “I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn’t have you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe have a girl.”

Although both George and Lennie are just sitting, Lennie’s imitation of the acts of George shows that he wants to seek an analogy with him. He wants to look similar to him and then do what George is doing. This living analogy, however, does not suit him.

Example # 6

Analogy in “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe

The implicit analogy in the story is between the building and the cask of Amontillado. Both are very old, very tricky, and very intoxicating in that Fortunato does not suspect Montresor of taking him to the inner catacomb by deception. Rather, he thinks that he is a connoisseur of Amontillado as well as the catacomb where he finally finds himself trapped to death.

How to Create Analogy

  1. Plan a story and think about different analogies to include.
  2. Think about the relationship between the analogous things.
  3. Write a sentence or two to see whether the similarities exist.
  4. Use analogy to relate things. Most often, characters and their traits are related to each other through similes or metaphors.

Benefits of Using Analogy

  1. Analogies make things clear and distinct from each other.
  2. The use of analogies helps readers perceive different relationships.
  3. Analogies help the readers to understand things easily by grasping their dimensions and other structural features.
  4. Analogies help writers to convey their messages effectively by utilizing relationships of features, traits, and character traits.

Literary Device of Analogy in Literary Theory

  1. Although analogy as an important figure of speech is also an integral part of formalism literary theory, it is also important in readers’ response theory, structuralism as well as deconstruction literary theory.
  2. Analogy is also important in postcolonialism literary theory where it is used mostly to understand power, identity, and subjectivity as well as their relationships.
  3. Analogies are also used in indigenous critical theory, queer theory, critical race theory, and postmodern literary theory. Most of these include biological analogies, spiritual analogies, physical analogies, and mathematical analogies.

Suggested Readings

Aubusson, Peter J., Allan G. Harrison, and Stephen M. Ritchie. “Metaphor And Analogy.” Metaphor and Analogy in Science Education. Springer, Dordrecht, 2006. 1-9. Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.

Alliteration

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Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device Alliteration

The literary device, alliteration, mostly used in poetic diction, has originated from the Latin terms ad and litter, or alliteratio which relates to letters. It later turned into alliteration in the early 17th century.

Grammatically, the literary device alliteration is a singular noun with plural alliterations. In poetic diction or literary terms, it relates to the sound of the words, becoming an integral part of the metrical pattern in poetry.

Definition of Literary Device Alliteration

In literature or in poetic diction, the literary device alliteration means the use of initial consonant sounds in the words adjacent to each other. It often happens as the head rhyme or initial rhyme or even without any rhyme scheme. The words could occur in the middle of the verse or in the end or even in the beginning. There is no restriction on it. Even in narrative diction, such sounds occur at different intervals.

Common Examples of Literary Device Alliteration

  • Buy burgers
  • Big bunnies
  • Citing sites
  • Dirty disks
  • Red Rrobin
  • American appeal
  • Dirty dream
  • Coca-Cola

Besides these common alliterative combinations, writers use several other such combinations to create alliterative sounds. Yet, it often happens in lyrics more than poems and narrations.

Literary Examples of Alliteration

Example # 1

From “Bill Gets Burned” by Phelps Putnam

Bill Williams was in Hell without a guide
And wandering around alone and cold,
Hoping for fires, for he said, “The name
Of Hell is not enough to keep the old
Place dignified without a flame.”
Bill was a hero, so he wandered on.

This poem “Bill Gets Burned” by Phelps Putnam shows the use of alliteration in its third line where the sound of /f/ in the initials of two successive words shows how melodious it seems to the readers. Although the sound of /a/, too, occurs repeatedly in the initials of the three successive words in the second line, it is not an alliteration.

Example # 2

From Hamlet by William Shakespeare

There’s such divinity doth hedge a king
That treason can but peep to what it would.

Although there is another word between two words having the initial sound of /w/, it is a very good alliteration taken from Hamlet, a masterpiece of William Shakespeare.

Example # 3

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.

These two verses occur in the popular Shakespearean play, Romeo and Juliet. Here both sounds /h/ and /p/ occurs in successive words, making these verses more melodious than the succeeding or preceding verses.

Example # 4

From Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

Though it be honest, it is never good
To bring bad news.

The occurrence of the /b/ sound in the initials of two successive words in these two verses shows how Shakespeare is adept in using alliteration to create a melody in his verses.


Example # 5

From “Will You Be There” by Michael Jackson

Weary, tell me will you hold me
When wrong, will you scold me
When lost will you find me?
But they told me a man should be faithful
And walk when not able
And fight till the end but I’m only human

These verses occur in Michael Jackson’s song, “Will You Be There” which shows the use of alliteration through the sounds of /w/, /m/, and again /w/ in three verses. Although the sound of /m/ occurs not in two successive words, the presence of a vowel between them does not pose any obstruction to create melodious impacts or change the metrical pattern.

Example # 6

From Trying to Get To You” by Elvis Presley

Well, there’s nothing that could hold me
Or that could keep me away from you
When your loving letter told me
That you really loved me true

The sound of /k/ occurs in the initials of two successive words in the second verse of this stanza taken from the song of Elis Presley “Trying to Get to You.” The readers immediately feel the rhythmic effects of this alliteration.

How to Create Alliteration

A writer can easily create alliterations in his writing disregarding the type of writing. However, an alliteration creates rhythm in poetic diction, though it creates almost the same musical quality in prose as well. The easiest way to include alliterative sounds in prose or poetry is to find the words that start with the same consonant sounds. Therefore, keep these points in mind when writing something.

  1. Plan what you are going to write in genre or form.
  2. Create Sounds having initial consonants in successive words.
  3.  Join words having the same initial consonants in a single sentence.
  4. Practice it daily and read it aloud. You will feel the impact of sounds in your writing.

Benefits of Using Alliteration

  1. Creating Rhythm
  2. Creating Mnemonic Examples
  3. Memory Assistance
  4. Creating Metrical Pattern

Literary Device Alliteration in Literary Theory

  1. Uses in Russian Formalism Literary Theory: Alliterations are an integral part of formalist criticism of poetry as they are poetic terms. They create melody and make audiences and readers enjoy the rhythm of poetry. However, their main task is to assist in creating thematic strands and help the poet reach the readers making them remember his message easily.
  2. Uses in Rhetoric: Alliterations help the writers to make their texts persuasive and rhetorically appealing. They help them make their readers pay attention and be convinced.
  3. Uses in Psychoanalytic Literary Theory: Alliterations help writers to create psychologically appealing sounds to make their message enter the psyche of the readers easily.
  4. Besides other theoretical perspectives, alliterations are also important in the reader’s response theory, Marxism, humanism, and any new theorization of some poetic idea as they are important to create rhythm, rhyme, and metrical patterns or understand them.

Suggested Readings

Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary Of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014.

Baldick, Chris. The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of Literary Terms. Oxford University Press, 1996. Blake, N. F. “Rhythmical Alliteration.” Modern Philology, vol. 67, no. 2, 1969, pp. 118–124. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/436000. Accessed 16 June 2021.

Allegory

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Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Allegory

Originally, the literary device of allegory seems to have been derived from two Greek terms alos which means other, and agoria which means speaking. After entering Latin and French language, it appeared in late Middle English as an allegory.

It means a story in narrative or verse having double meanings.

In grammar, it is a noun with plural allegories.

Definition of Literary Device of Allegory

An allegory in literature is a story or a poem having specific political and social messages behind the lines or at least there is one other message besides the given literal story. It could be a movie, too. Some other literary devices/terms close to allegory are story, tale, myth, legend, parable, and myth.

Common Examples of Literary Device Allegory

  1. Political stories in the shape of pygmies or animals such as Animal Farm by George Orwell
  2. Religious stories of the people having moral or religious lessons such as The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
  3. Social stories such as The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  4. Moral stories such as Aesop’s Fables

Literary Examples of Allegory

Example # 1

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

The story comprises the tale of a sailor, Ishmael, who takes the fancy of a giant whale that dodges them everywhere. However, when he meets Captain Ahab, both of them chase it despite having predictions of their bad luck. They meet several accidents and in the final battle, the captain loses his life, while Ishmael has a close shave. The story is, thus, not only a tale of man’s search for meanings, but also relates to the religious morality of avoiding revenge, arrogance, and self-centeredness. Therefore, it is a religious as well as metaphysical allegory.

Example # 2

The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser

The story of The Faerie Queene comprises a total of six books with each having a story of a knight about a specific virtue. For example, the first book relates the story of the Redcrosse Knight, the second relates the story of Sir Guyon, the third relates the story of a lady knight, Britomart, the fourth a friendship story, while the last two books are about Sir Artegall and Sir Calidore. As it relates to virtue, religion, and politics simultaneously, it is a religious as well as political and social allegory.

Example # 3

“Rapppaccini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The story of “Rappaccini’s Daughter” comprises the beautiful daughter of Dr. Rappaccini and his beautiful garden of poisonous herbs. The young man, Giovanni, becomes the victim of the alliance of the father and daughter though Beatrice dies by the end, clearing her position in this saga. The story seems to be a religious allegory as Giovanni and Beatrice bear a resemblance with Adam and Eve and the garden of Dr. Rappaccini seems to be the Garden of Eden. Therefore, it seems a religious allegory.

Example # 4

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Despite having some truths in the storyline, The Old Man and The Sea has been categorized as a religious allegory as Santiago has been termed a Christ-like figure having endurance and patience to undergo extreme suffering to the point that defeats the Marlin, a fish that symbolizes worldly obstacles. Although the old man is not virtuous or deeply religious, he vows to say hymns and prayers when the fish faces defeat. This leads to several allegorical interpretations of the storyline.

How to Create an Allegory

Creating an allegory is not a difficult task for students. A story could comprise animals, insects, birds, living things, or even ideas having names and titles to demonstrate a moral or social lesson by the end. However, the most difficult thing is to associate the storyline with some ethical framework, for every region in the world having a specific social structure has a separate ethical or moral framework. Therefore, the universally successful allegories are those which comprise universal ethical ideas such as honesty, justice, temperance, and wisdom.  Therefore, when creating an allegorical novel or short story, keep in mind the following points.

  1. Create a plan having characters (animals, birds, human beings or ideas).
  2. Create a narrative structure.
  3. Beautify it with other devices using descriptive language.
  4. Clearly leave a moral/social/ethical message for the readers.
  5. Use universal morals such as courage, honesty or temperance, and justice.

Benefits of Using an Allegory

  1. Using an allegory in stories, poems and events is beneficial for writers, thinkers, and poets as direct criticism was not possible in the old regal and dictatorial regimes. Therefore, the writers used animals and birds for stories.
  2. They, using such characters, helped themselves to convey their messages and propagate their ideas to the public.
  3. They also used to hide criticism and avoid conflicts. Even now, the writers use allegories to avoid religious backlash, political violence, and government restrictions to convey their messages to the readers and audiences.

Allegory in Literary Theory

  1. Social, political, religious, and moral allegories have continued appearing on the scene such as Aesop’s Fables, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, morality plays, and travelogues of the 17th and 18th centuries. However, as it is written in a language understood differently, it means that the text presents another structural reality encoded in the story.
  2. Therefore, in the interpretation of literature, allegory is an important element of Russian formalism as well as the New Criticism including Structuralism and Post-Structuralism. Yet, it has not lost its significance in postmodernism and post-truth theoretical lenses applied to interpret modern narratives.
  3. Interestingly, Walter Benjamin has termed allegory as a proper theory having “pre-eminently a kind of experience.” He means that it exists and passes out having transitory nature having the experience of some event or incident as well as its intuition (Cowan 109-110). However, this theory is highly complex in aesthetic terms.

Suggesting Readings

Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.

Cowan, Bainard. “Walter Benjamin’s Theory of Allegory.” New German Critique, no. 22, 1981, pp. 109–122. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/487866. Accessed 15 June 2021.

Auger, Peter. The Anthem Dictionary of Literary Terms and Theory. Anthem Press, 2010. Print. Quilligan, Maureen. The Language of Allegory. Cornell University Press, 2018. Print.

Suggested read: Literary Device Blank Verse